A Pilot's View of the Cory Lidle Crash

Instapundit points us to a Popular Mechanics article written by a private pilot who has flown nearly the same route flown by Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle:

PopularMechanics.com, Oct. 12, 2006 — When I was a newly minted private pilot like Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle, I did the same thing that he did: I hired an instructor to show me how to fly the Hudson VFR corridor—a flyway of unrestricted airspace that follows the western edge of Manhattan along the Hudson River. (VFR stands for “visual flight rules,” which means the only things keeping you out of trouble are your own eyeballs.) It had been on my to-do list for a long time. After all, one of the major attractions of getting a pilot’s license—one of the things that keeps you motivated through the often seemingly endless months of study—is that when it’s all over you get to see some of America’s most spectacular sights in a way that few are privileged to do.

And flying the Hudson VFR corridor is one of the most spectacular of all. For pilots taking off from Teterboro, a general aviation airport in New Jersey, 12 miles north of midtown Manhattan, the typical procedure is to head east under the control of Teterboro tower and then switch frequency to a radio channel that’s monitored by everyone going up and down the Hudson. At the Alpine Tower, a radio mast on a New Jersey cliff overlooking the Hudson, you turn right and descend to 1,000 feet and then follow the west bank. It’s like driving down a highway: southbound traffic on the west (New Jersey) side of the river; northbound on the east (Manhattan) side. The view of the city is incredible: You’re lower than the tops of the highest buildings, and as you pass over the George Washington Bridge linking northern Manhattan and New Jersey, it almost feels like the top of the span might snag your undercarriage.

For a pilot who used to fly through the LAX VFR Corridor, I can relate to what he's writing about. Read the rest of it here.